on; if I make clear to
you every obscure point in this hideous intrigue; if I confess to you
that the Latin compact has been given up for all time, won't that be
enough? Won't you go then?"

Mr. Grimm's teeth closed with a snap.

"I don't want that--from you," he declared.

"But if I should tell it all to you?" she pleaded.

"I won't listen, Miss Thorne. You once paid me the compliment of saying
that I was one man you knew in whom you had never been disappointed."
The listless eyes were blazing into her own now. "_I_ have never been
disappointed in you. I will not permit you to disappoint me now. The
secrets of your government are mine if I can get them--but I won't allow
you to tell them to me."

"My government!" Miss Thorne repeated, and her lips curled sadly. "I--I
have no government. I have been cast off by that government, stripped of
my rank, and branded as a traitor!"

"Traitor!" Mr. Grimm's lips formed the word silently.

"I failed, don't you see?" she rushed on. "Ignominy is the reward of
failure. Prince d'Abruzzi went on to New York that night, cabled a full
account of the destruction of the compact to my government, and sailed
home on the following day. I was the responsible one, and now it all
comes back on me." For a moment she was silent. "It's so singular, Mr.
Grimm. The fight from the first was between us--we two; and you won."

XXVI

IN WHICH THEY BOTH WIN

Mr. Grimm dropped into a chair with his teeth clenched, and his face
like chalk. For a minute or more he sat there turning it all over in his
mind. Truly the triumph had been robbed of its splendor when the blow
fell here--here upon a woman he loved.

"There's no shame in the confession of one who is fairly beaten," Isabel
went on softly, after a little. "There are many things that you don't
understand. I came to Washington with an authority from my sovereign
higher even than that vested in the ambassador; I came _as_ I did and
compelled Count di Rosini to obtain an invitation to the state ball for
me in order that I might meet a representative of Russia there that
night and receive an answer as to whether or not they would join the
compact. I received that answer; its substance is of no consequence now.

"And you remember where I first met you? It was while you were
investigating the shooting of Senor Alvarez in the German embassy. That
shooting, as you know, was done by Prince d'Abruzzi, so almost from the
beginning my plans